New in SpyWeek: Israeli Intel Coup, Tulsi hijinks, and an Air Force UFO Coverup

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A protest in Washington, D.C., in 1995. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that military officials helped spread a story that UFOs were real to cover up experimental aircraft tests at Area 51. See below. (Joshua Roberts/Agence France-Presse via Getty)

Israel One-ups Ukraine: As if to mimic Ukraine’s spectacular June 1 drone attack on Russian warplanes from trucks inside the country, Israeli commandos slipped weapons inside Iran that, based on exquisite intelligence-gathering, and in concert with devastating air strikes, assaulted strategic targets and wiped out virtually all of the regime’s top military commanders. "We established a drone base inside Iran, and at zero hour, Mossad operatives retrieved them from hiding spots,” an Israeli official told Fox News. “We placed precision missiles on numerous vehicles and embedded additional missiles throughout the country, hidden inside rocks. We activated this entire array in precise coordination with the Israeli air force." The masterful Ukrainian, and now Israeli ops, should be a wake-up call for U.S. defense officials,  Sen. Mark Warner,  ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told our Michael Isikoff back on June 5: A U.S. adversary might well try the same here. 

Tulsi, Tulsi, Tulsi:  The irrepressible director of national intelligence is not shying away from the spotlight in the wake of yet more alarming revelations that might have already destroyed the career of a more traditional intelligence chief—to wit, her efforts to put a spy inside the ODNI’s Inspector General’s office, this following reports of her and her staff trying to manipulate intelligence on Venezuela to put it in line with Trump’s false “invasion” claims. Senior Democrats loudly complained, to no avail.  Now, this week Gabbard made and distributed  a weird video warning that  “the political elite and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers."

We guess the Russia-friendly DNI was referring to pro-Ukraine Democrats (and a few Republicans). In any event, it was too much for even some Republicans. “She obviously needs to change her meds,” cracked Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy.